Youth Sports May Be Bad for Your Health

Warning: Being a student athlete may be dangerous to your physical and mental health.

The school year is drawing to a close, and with it many spring sports seasons are ending or are in playoffs. But that hasn’t dimmed the light of attention being focused on youth sports lately.

Consider the recent story of Darien lacrosse coach Lisa Lindley. Until the Friday before Memorial Day, she was the revered leader of ’s girls lacrosse team. But on that day, in the middle of the FCIAC lax finals pitting Darien against Greenwich, , Caylee Waters. Pictures taken by a Hearst newspapers photographer show the coach grabbing Waters’ helmet and shouting in her face.

Shortly thereafter, Lindley was placed on administrative leave from her coaching position for this year, but it’s been reported that her suspension will not be a permanent one; in fact, according to the Darien Times Lindley will return next year as coach of the team.

I’m troubled that school administrators aren’t giving more extensive consideration before allowing her to take back the reins of the team, especially after suggest the incident was behavior not far out of the norm for this coach.

Student athletes, even at older teenage levels, are still kids. I know there are those who say, “We coddle our kids too much in Fairfield County. Not everyone deserves a trophy.”

All the same, everyone deserves to feel safe and not be verbally assaulted by an adult who is purportedly teaching you and directing you. These are teenagers, not professional athletes—whether they be girls or boys.

Surprisingly, some commenters did support this type of coaching, suggesting girl athletes will always feel second tier to boys, and a coach who yells is actually one who shows “real caring.”  Sorry, but I wholeheartedly disagree—I think a yeller only makes someone feel belittled, lousy and less confident.

Of course, coaching incidents like this are not the norm, but they make for great headlines—as happened in had players burn third place trophies as some sort of punishing motivation for not ranking higher. Fairfield County is not the sole place where school and town athletics are competitive, or where parents heatedly yell at kids and umpires from the sidelines.

Now, too, there’s mounting buzz about health issues that crop up from sports injuries, predominantly concussions. It’s an issue being debated more and more at professional levels, considering how damaging a career’s worth of repeated injuries could potentially be.

After recent suicides of retired players reportedly suffering with lingering effects form past head injuries were anecdotally linked to progressive brain damage, the heat has increased—most recently when the family of former NFL player Junior Seau decided to donate his brain for head trauma research following Seau’s suicide last month.

Some big names are starting to take a more vocal stand against players starting young, especially in the more aggressive sports like football. Did you ever think you’d hear the names Tom Brady Sr. or Kurt Warner on the side of those advocating a harder look at the dangers of teen and youth football? Even the dad of leading quarterback Tom Brady would think twice about letting his son get into the game.

Here in Wilton where I live, there have been a sudden rash of recent injuries in the handful of child athletes I know—two concussions (one baseball, one soccer), one baseball to the eye, one potential broken wrist (also baseball)—and those are to kids not yet in high school.

What’s more, it’s not even football season.

We have to wonder about how much we’re pushing our kids, and pushing our kids to push themselves. I understand the camaraderie, the dedication and commitment they’re learning, and the amazing physical benefits of involvement in team sports.

I write this while watching my son at travel soccer practice. At the moment, they’re working on strategic passes to goal, and as center midfielder and occasional striker, he’s right now standing close to goal as the player his teammates will pass to for the score. I watch as a pass comes his way—directly at his head.

I feel the internal pull between soccer sideline mom and … just mom. Make the header! says the mom who wants her son to do well for his coach, for his teammates and for himself.

And what of the ‘just mom,’ who knows the lasting impact a swift moving ball can have when it does literally make impact.  Please let him reflexively turn away!

Realistically, I know the majority of young athletes don’t get injured, and they’re not pushed past their physical limits. So too, of course, there are so many more wonderful coaches who motivate their young student athletes by building their self-esteem and infusing their character.

I hope those are the rules and that my children and yours don’t meet the exceptions.

I want my children to reap the healthy benefits of being active and part of a team. I hope being an athlete will give them opportunities to test themselves and to attain goals that outpace their self-expectations.

I just don’t think they need to be put in harm’s way or pushed too far in order to achieve those successes..